We are currently offering:

White Burgundy 2008

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Red Burgundy 2008

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The Whites
Purity of flavour was definitely the key in 2008, with some true minerality in virtually every wine that we tasted in the Côte d’Or. The flavours are keen, delicate even, long in the mouth with a fresh clean finish, which suggests this is a ‘classic’ vintage but one for relatively early drinking. Yields were down in general after a drawn-out spring and poor fruit-set, and hail in Meursault in July further reduced the potential of certain vineyards. As we have reported with the Red Burgundy Lying Abroad Offer (still available on line to download), the growers told us just what a difficult year it was. Emilie Riveau at Etienne Sauzet remembered very long faces in September, “but the north wind saved the day – then it was almost a rush to get the grapes in before they were over-concentrated!”

We were impressed by the wines from our regular producers, and noted that some of the lesser appellations fared particularly well. “The vintage has come out with a très belle elegance,” said a very happy Alain Gras at Saint-Romain, while the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune from Rémi Rollin was beautifully balanced. Further south we encountered some delicious, slightly fuller and rounder whites in the Mâconnais and Chalonnais, especially at Château Fuissé. They are excellent value-for-money, and will drink rather sooner as well.

The Reds

**STOP PRESS** - We have a late addition to our 2008 Red Burgundy offer:
Bourgogne Pinot Noir Vielles Vignes, Maison Roche de Bellène @ £90 per 12
                                                  or buy 2 cases for £171 and save 5%
This is from Nicolas Potel's latest venture, and he's made a delicious, ripe, elegant Pinot Noir which shows strawberry fuit and nice length. From de-classified village wine it has some grip, so although for young drinking it will still mature well for five years. (We are hoping to label this as Tanners Red Burgundy but this is still to be confirmed.)

Burgundy vintages vary between light and elegant ‘red fruit’ years and dense ‘black fruit’ years, the latter being the result of long hot summers. The 2008 Red Burgundy vintage falls between the two, but is further towards the black fruit end of the spectrum than the red. This is the result of one of the latest vintages for many, many years and a harvest that was conducted in wonderful weather, ‘under big blue skies’, as one of our growers put it. 2008 Red Burgundies are fuller and fleshier with more stuffing than the attractive 2007 Red Burgundies. The 2008 Red Burgundies have vivacity, lovely fruit and are generous by nature. 2008 isn’t a big structured year and what tannins there are, are silky and ripe. We visited many producers and tasted a huge number of wines in our quest to offer you the best Red Burgundy range. What we couldn’t find was any consensus whatsoever on comparable previous vintages, undoubtedly because there is this unusual mix of pure fruit together with excellent density. This will make the wines dual purpose: their wonderful fruit and fragrance will give lovely early drinking Burgundy, but many will age well on their acidity, giving some graceful wines for later on. All areas performed well, with the gap between the Côte de Beaune and the Côte de Nuits being narrower than usual, together with some very nice wines indeed coming out of the hilly Hautes-Côtes.

The Weather
The summer started off reasonably well with warm weather in June but the weather during the summer holidays - just as it was in England - was frankly forgettable. Growers went into September with few hopes of a good vintage but their luck turned with several weeks of brilliant sunshine with a strong wind blowing too. This fine weather and a favourable outlook on the Méteo meant that growers could leave their grapes to hang until the very end of September and into October, achieving maximum complexity of compounds in the berries. The wind had the beneficial effect of drying the bunches so that rot was prevented, while the grapes were concentrated to maximum effect. This served to reduce yields as did the uneven fruit set (called millerandage), which meant conscientious growers rigorously sorted their bunches of grapes both in the vineyard and on sorting grapes on reception at the cuverie door. Yields were thus reduced by up to 30% and the concentration in the resulting wine was much improved. The weather was certainly the main player, but hard work in the vineyard was once again the key and we suspect that the work-shy grower did not fare so well in 2008!

 

All Lying Abroad prices are exclusive of duty, shipping & VAT, payable at the time of shipment. You cannot order online, please ring us on 01743 234455 to discuss your requirements and discuss current availabilities.

 

Tuscan Stars - La Massa 2007
Douro Reds 2007 - Reference Guide Only